Yasuhisa Arai and Masaki Takahashi
School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan

Koutarou Takeda and Katsuo Shitoto
Urayasu Hospital, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan

Intradural spinal teratoma is a very rare tumour that can be associated with dysraphic defects. We report a case of adult-onset intradural spinal teratoma in the lumbar spine. The patient was a 54-year-old female who had chief complaints of a gait disturbance. X-rays showed an enlargement of the interpedicular distance at L3/L4 and spina bifida distal to L4. MRI showed a spindle-shaped tumour between L2 and L5. We performed laminotomy using an ultrasonic surgical knife. Pathological diagnosis of the resected tumour was matured teratoma. The diagnosis of matured teratoma was made because the tumour had no epithelium and a layered structure including prostate tissue, matured fat, cartilage and sweat gland.

Key words: teratoma; spinal tumour; laminotomoplasty